Following a second embarrassing defeat in a span of four days, Scolari handed in his resignation to the Brazilian FA (CBF), according to a report in the Brazilian newspaper Globo. The CBF is expected to accept the resignation on Monday, in addition with sacking the rest of the World Cup coaching staff.

Everything seemed to be going relatively well for Brazil until they arrived in the World Cup semifinals without Neymar, Thiago Silva, and seemingly a plan to stop Germany. Germany routed Brazil, 7-1, on their way to winning the World Cup and Brazil couldn’t even win the third-place match last Saturday, being defeated by the Netherlands, 3-0.

In Scolari’s second reign as Brazil head coach, he won 19 games, drew six, and lost four. The search for a new coach to take the Selecao to the 2015 Copa America in Chile and the 2018 World Cup in Russia will begin immediately.

Here are some more stories to get your Monday started:

RODRIGUEZ INCHING CLOSER TO REAL MADRID

James Rodriguez could very well make his dream move to Real Madrid in the next few weeks.

According to reports in France and Spain, Real Madrid is moving ever closer to signing the Colombian star, as negotiations between Real Madrid and AS Monaco are ongoing. Reports in Spain state that Madrid have negotiated the transfer fee down to around 85 million euros ($116 million) from the starting point of 115 million euros, while reports in France state that Real Madrid have offered Rodriguez a six-year contract worth nearly 7 million euros per season.

In the meantime, Rodriguez has joined up with Monaco’s preseason preparations in advance of Monaco’s matches against Junior in Barranquilla on July 20 and Atletico Nacional in Miami on July 23.

MAN UNITED ANNOUNCE DEAL WITH ADIDAS

Manchester United will have a new kit supplier next season, and Adidas is paying top dollar for it.

Proving that a season outside of European competitions hasn’t harmed the Man United brand, the club announced that they’ve signed a record-breaking 10-year deal with Adidas worth a minimum of £750 million (nearly $1.3 billion, $128 million per season), beginning in the 2015-2016 season. The deal was for the club’s global technical sponsorship and dual branded licensing.

Man United has been with Nike since 2002 but had Adidas as their kit supplier from 1980 through 1992. Man United’s contract with Nike runs through the end of this season and Nike was unwilling to meet Adidas’ price.

BARCELONA UNABLE TO INTRODUCE SUAREZ

Luis Suarez is expected to arrive in Spain this week to complete his reported £75 million transfer FC Barcelona, but the club won’t be able to show off its prized signing once Suarez passes his medical.

FIFA announced on Sunday that as part of the four-month ban from soccer-related activities, Barcelona is blocked from publicly unveiling Suarez at any kind of event, even if it’s not taking place at the Camp Nou.

“The ban relates to all football-related activity. He cannot be in a football-related public event irrespective of the venue,” FIFA’s head of media Delia Fischer told Press Association Sport. “He cannot even be involved in a football-related charity event.”

QUICK KICKS

Brazilian forward Fred has decided to retire from international soccer after a disastrous tournament, where he scored just once. (REPORT)

England will face Scotland in an international friendly on Nov. 18 at Celtic Park. (REPORT)

Newcastle have completed the signing of Montpellier midfielder Remy Cabella on a six-year contract. (REPORT)

Tottenham have been given the go-ahead to start construction on a new 58,000 seat stadium. (REPORT)

Seems pretty reasonable actualy. Besides having the right to make and sell Man U jerseys globally (which I’m sure is a huge market) they get all of the advertising every time there is a MAN U game on tv anywhere is the world. That is worth a lot.

Brazil is so talented Scolari has to bear some of the blame, but you wonder if a soft Confed Cup (none of the other CC teams past the round of 16 this tournament) and the vagueness of a host friendly schedule played by a world power that teams approach with great respect (rather than a CONMEBOL qualifying campaign that would have involved a stern schedule) perhaps gave them a distorted idea of what the team was prepared to accomplish. You would think a trip to Montevideo or Buenos Aires in a game that meant something might have exposed the defensive swiss cheese and the lack of topline punch months ago and it could have been fixed. But as host on a fair run of form in terms of results they perhaps showed up with an inflated opinion of themselves.

on another note, anyone catch Fox Sports Live last night with Jozy and Jones? Wynalda asked Jones what his club situation was and basically Jones said he wants Bradley/Dempsey money and that he proved he deserved it at the World Cup. he went on to say the ball is in MLS’ court and meanwhile he’ll be on vacation in LA and they know how to find him. pretty funny moment.

i’d say LAG, Seattle, KC, NYRB, NYCFC, TFC, Orlando, and even the re-branded Chivas. i think LAG is the obvious favorite given Omar is likely to leave. Seattle would only be able to if they found a way to pay down Osvaldo’s contract or if Martins actually does leave. i think the former is pretty realistic.

KC i say because we saw they were willing to match TFC’s Bradley offer but Bradley didn’t want to go to KC. so they have money. as for NYRB, i doubt it but they are of the teams who could.

NYCFC obviously has the money but they would have to come up with a loan which could make it too difficult. TFC is just listed cause they have the money. kind of the same thing with Orlando, but same situation as NYCFC in regards to having to find a loan.

LAII could be a real thing too. the question is, will MLS put up the money and will he mind playing in a Chivas USA jersey in the meantime? with Chivas USA actually playing well, i don’t see it as a bad move for Jones.

we know he wants to play in LA, so MLS should remember that if LAG can’t make it happen. Jones could essentially become the face of that LA2 team once the season ends.

There are some Red Bulls fans like myself who would rather have Jones ahead of the highly rumored Xavi. I’m sure there are recently promoted clubs who will take Jones for a 6 month loan to the new year if he were to sign for Orlando or NYCFC

Jones should get good DP money but he is not worth as much as Dempsey and Bradley. Bradley is younger and a better box to box midfielder/defensive midfielder than jones (demonstrated repeatedly during qualifying, WC not applicable because Bradley played out of position). Dempsey also is younger and is a goal scorer which is worth more than a box to box or destroyer type midfielder. Jones would be a great player on any MLS team but for the position he plays and his age he is not worth Bradley or Dempsey money. 3-4 million a year sounds about right.

totally agree, i think he says that to aim high, but he has to know the $3M-$4M range is much more realistic. add in some incentives and a few sponsorship deals and he’ll be just fine.

it’s not like his contract in Turkey was massive:

“US international has arrived on a six-month loan with purchase option that will cost the club a total of €900,000 (just more than $1.2 million) by the end of summer. Beşiktaş also hold the summer option to sign Jones, who had entered the final months of his Schalke deal, to a two-year contract with a base salary of €1.8 million (about $2.45 million) per season.”

It depends, If Bayer Munich views the trip as a brand building exercise in the US that yea Green will make the trip and probably see a fair amount of minutes. If Bayer sees the trip as an important part of their preseason preparations for the upcoming season, Green will probably make the trip but not see very many minutes.

Green is a big prospect for sure, But I think if Bayer really thought he was in their long term plans they would almost certainly loan him out this year to get him time against decent competition so they could see what they really have. When was the last time a player got first team minutes for Bayer coming straight from their reserve program without starting on a top flight team somewhere before?

Not sure about that. Bayern were going to loan him out to 1.Bundesliga team Hamburger last season but Guardiola called the loan deal off. Also with Kroos and Mandzukic gone who knows. Maybe Julian will be in Pep’s starting rotation from matchday 1 on August 22.

Pep specifically said before or during the World Cup that they did not want to loan Green out because Green was in his plans. that said, i hope that turns out to be true otherwise he should be on loan. although, i never liked the idea of Green to Spurs on loan. so it depends, IMO.

I would also bet a bunch of the guys who played deep into the WC (mostly Germans, but Robben too) will be given some time off, making it more likely to see some prospects like Green in these early friendlies.

Y’all act like these are super-serious games where the coach frets about whether to risk Green. I assume the World Cup core will be given a holiday and will just be working on fitness by the end of the month. They will play a little to justify the ticket prices, and then Green, if healthy, will play maybe 30-45 minutes, because one of the points to these preseason games is a chance to see the kids play in a meaningless fixture. It’s kind of like an early round cup fixture, you don’t waste that on the primary XI. Plus, I’m sure they know people might be coming to see Green. So you give us what we want like Gooch playing for Milan when they came by. Doesn’t mean you’ll play another game. But if part of the point is simply making $$ then you give the fans what they want.

man, i was in Baltimore for the AC Milan v. Chelsea game the summer after Gooch signed with Milan. despite it taking 4 hours to get from Arlington, VA to Baltimore, MD, seeing Gooch play with Milan that day made it worth it. the crowd went nuts.

So everyone is over reacting to Brazil’s performance in this world cup. Brazil was an emotionally wrecked team from facing the unbelievable pressure of having to win the world cup. As a result you saw them completely fall apart when they faced adversity (the loss of their pest player, the loss of Silva, and getting behind a world class team). They have good players but good players become bad players when they each try to do too much because they are so jacked up emotionally from the circumstances.

Also Brazil had good players but they were just not as good as the team that won the world cup. Other than Neymar (who was injured) and possibly Oscar would you take any of the Brazilian players to start on Germany’s team? I wouldn’t, and even with the talent gap they still made the semifinals of a World cup which is really hard to do and a great result. They are upset they got embarrassed by germany and the Netherlands (to a lesser extent) but both of those teams are just Simply better than Brazil at this moment but I beleive that was caused by the psyk issues rather than a talent gap (We lost to Germany 1-0, Costa Rica tied the Netherlands).

I’m not sure I get your point. You acknowledge (1) that Brazil’s players are not as good as we/they thought, and certainly not good enough to compete with the best, and (2) that they crumbled when faced with some adversity. That’s a pretty devastating assessment. So how are people over-reacting?

Ok, during any given cycle no team, not even brazil, is entitled to have the best players. This cycle Brazil had 1 exceptional player (who was hurt) and 10 good players most of which played terribly and below their standards. Germany had 11 very good players and one exceptional player (Their Goal keeper) all playing at or above form (Boatang was a monster in the final). Argentina had one exceptional player and 10 good players who played to form. Holland and 10 good players who played to form and one exceptional player (robben). Everyone reacting saying Brazil is in terrible shape because they finished 4th is being absurd. People are overreacting because Brazil suffered a Tahiti-vs Spain type of result. They suffered that result as a result of psychological factors not because they don’t have talent to compete. We competed against Germany and lost 1-0 even though we suffer from a pretty large talent gap, Ghana tied them even though they also have a larger talent gap from Germany then Brazil does.

OK. But Brazil was less than impressive in many of its other games as well, even with Neymar and Silva. I don’t think anyone is saying that Brazil is in danger of failing to qualify for Russia 2018 — any more than, say, Spain or Italy — but they were coming up short of expectations well before the blowout against Germany. They’ll be back, for sure, but I don’t know if they will ever enjoy the psychological advantage they used to have over many teams even before they stepped on the field. And they will have to re-tool and repair their confidence if they hope to win another Cup.

I think Brazil was protected from reality by a soft Confed Cup experience and the immunity from qualifying of the host. I think Brazil has so much talent it never absolutely stinks — this was the #4 team in the world still, it bears reminding — but there have been years like the Ronaldo and Adriano team a few years back where the selection is a little too reflexive, players are allowed to underperform, and they don’t run out a good team.

Brazil has a ton of good players domestically and abroad, you’re telling me they couldn’t find two legbreakers in that domestic league who would have been solid stoppers better than this? This is not the USA, you don’t just run out of decent backs. They went with stars and the star system ate their lunch. Since they were hosts and had an easy Confed Cup, they didn’t start to figure it out until the roster was set and they were playing with money on the table.

I don’t think they were inherently a mental wreck, they had certain weakness that were exploited ruthlessly and repeatedly. Zonal marking, poor defensive selection.

I think they’d still have had a problem winning it all as a “crossing” team which struggled for goals — a la Mexico — but a lot of their problems come down to specific defensive selection choices, compounded by zonal defense which made no one responsible for player x on his runs in.

One example: David Luiz. Poor marking back, everyone knows it, that’s why Mourinho ran him out of CFC fast as possible, handed starting job for Brazil. He did score two goals but probably helped allow many more than that. He is the epitome of everything wrong with the “but he’s good going forward” ethos.

Im curious if anyone still doubts Pep Guardiola. Everyone was saying he had an easy job coaching a bunch of super stars at Barcelona. Now 4 years apart a team again made up of primarily his club players win the cup

Most of this German team that plays for bayern is actually Louis can Gaal’s bayern team. And then Jupp Heynkes’ bayern. Don’t think Pep had that great of an influence on this German team as he did with the Spanish of 2008-2012.

Well Pep is the one who moved Lahm to CM at Bayern despite playing as an outside back his whole career. Its funny because Pep inherited a Champions league winning team that added even more firepower and he couldn’t produce.

Maybe for only a few here I should explain something. Yes, I believe Julian Green is very close to world-class today. Yes, I am still p*ssed Klinsmann didn’t play him and, Yes, I think he will be in the starting rotation this season at Bayern.

Now here is why I keep bringing it up as shown on my pointing out the friendlies in New York and Portland (MLS All-Stars). It is for only ONE reason. I really want soccer to grow much more interest here in the USA. I believe Julian Green can (will) play an important part of that now, rather than later.

So, instead of letting Green leave on a loan ( no offer was ever made, btw) to get div 1 experience Pep decided that keeping him playing 4th division would get him ready to start for Bayern this year? That’s the stup!dest thing I’ve ever heard.
You probably didn’t get the memo but !diots like you were supposed to go away after the World Cup.

lol, it is even much worse than that for you Advoyull. Not only was there a deal in place between Bayern and Hamburger but Pep nixed the loan and have Green stay, practice and play with the reserve team but get this,……….it would get him ready to play for the first team not for this coming season but for the second half of last season.

If Suarez passes his dental, Barca can play him as a CB to add some intimidation factor to their back line and their defensive problems will be solved. Oh, well, I am still waiting for that CB signing.

Not sure if anyone else saw this but Kramer (the german CM concussed yesterday) had an interview afterwards that made it clear he should not have been left in the game. He doesn’t remember the first half at all and thought he was subbed out after the collision. Shocking stuff

Not really that shocking, pretty standard story from an athlete who take a blow like that, you hear them in football all the time. Merrill hodge tells a story of getting a concussion in a game, going back in and then having to go to the locker room where his heart stopped (team doctors saved his life and good thing he wasn’t on the field when it happend).

FIFA won’t get serious about this until someone dies because the answer requires either a) changing some fundamental rules of the game (3 subs only) or b) forcing teams to play at a significant disadvantage that is outside of their control (mandatory removal from play as determined by an independent doctor).